Mary Lou Retton Opens Up About Recovery from Rare Form of Pneumonia That Left Her in the ICU: 'I'm a Fighter'

Mar. 15, 2025

Mary Lou Retton.Photo:NBC NEWS/TODAY

NBC NEWS/TODAY

Mary Lou Rettonmay be on the mend now, but last fall she was “fighting for her life” after a battle with rare form pneumonia sent her to the ICU.

“I’m not great yet, I know it’s going to be a really long road — I don’t know how long, I may indefinitely need oxygen — but you have no idea how blessed and how grateful I was for this holiday season,” Retton she said in an interview from her home in Boerne, Texas, that aired on Monday’s episode of theTodayshow.

She went on give an update about her recovery, saying that she has no plans to back down.

“I mean, when you face death in the eyes? I have so much to look forward to,” said Retton. “I’m a fighter and I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to give up. I have no idea what the future holds for me. I don’t know if I’m going to have lasting issues with my lungs. They don’t know. I wish I had answers. But I will never give up, it’s not in me.”

Schrepfer told PEOPLE at the time that her family’s priority was “the well-being of our mom.”

Doctors had diagnosed her with the illness after testing for COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), determined to figure out what was causing Retton’s health troubles. “She was tested for everything,” Schrepfer,who sat with her mother for theTodayinterview, told Kotb. “Everything negative.”

“I’ve never had a lung issue in my life,” a baffled Retton added, marveling at how X-rays were “completely white,” with her lungs unable to be seen.

Mary Lou Retton in February 2017.Robin Marchant/Getty

Robin Marchant/Getty

She first noticed she wasn’t feeling well the day before, while sitting with Schrepfer for a mother-daughter manicure to prep for a “girls trip” to Dallas to see Emma’s boyfriend play in a football game. “I was feeling tired, but I’m thinking, ‘I turned 56 this month,’ " she recalled. “I was not out of breath.”

While Schrepfer remembered her mom saying, “I just can’t keep my eyes open. I am so tired,” she didn’t think anything off it at the time. She explained that her mom is “like a little pistol.” But the next morning, Retton never showed up to game.

“I couldn’t. I literally was laying on my bedroom floor and I said, ‘I can’t do this,' " she told Kotb. “I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I couldn’t breath. You know how you want to…take that big deep breath? I couldn’t do it. I still can’t do it!”

Mary Lou Retton at the 1984 Summer Olympics.Andy Hayt /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

Andy Hayt /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

Luckily, a neighbor noticed a car door left open in Retton’s driveway. “She came in the house, she knows my code, and saw me and found me. Pretty much saved my life,” the athlete said. “I was, I don’t know, what did she say? White, blue — I don’t even remember it. I remember them coming in, but that’s pretty much it.”

Retton was taken to a local hospital, where she was admitted and diagnosed with pneumonia. But a few days later, she was sent home. “It was a bad experience. I wasn’t being treated,” Retton said, with Schrepfer adding, “It wasn’t being taken as seriously as it was.”

Her pulse oximeter level, which measures the amount of oxygen circulating in the blood, was in the 70s, she said — far from the typical 95% to 100% range.

Mary Lou Retton and daughter Shayla Schrepfer.Shayla Kelley Schrepfer/Instagram

Shayla Kelley Schrepfer/Instagram

Retton’s levelscontinued to plummet over the next week. Things got so bad that her medical team considering putting her on a ventilator for “life support,” and advised Schrepfer to “prepare for the worst.”

“She told me, ‘You need to get your sister here, because we don’t know if she’s going to make it through the night,’ " Schrepfer recalled toToday. “And so McKenna and I, put her hands on her and we said a prayer.”

In a last ditch idea, with one more breathing apparatus failing, doctors decided to pump high-flow oxygen through her nose. It helped rise her levels enough that she didn’t need to go on a ventilator.

After a month in the hospital, her lungs began to heal enough that she was able to go home for the holidays. Retton sharedher first official update on her healthand ongoing recovery about one week later.

“I’m with family continuing to slowly recover and staying very positive as I know this recovery is a long and slow process,” she posted to Instagram, continuing that she hoped to one day “help others who may face the same battle as me.”

Since her daughters shared her story, fans have offered a swell of support to Retton — something she told Kotb in herTodayinterview fuels her.

“I just thought I was a washed-up old athlete, but the love touched me,” she said. “Now that I’m alive and I made it through, there’s so many more positives than negatives.”

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source: people.com